How is time establish

How was time established?  Who was the one who created the idea of tracking time on a watch?  This questions are raised through E. P. Thompson’s article, Time, Work-Disciple, and Industrial Capitalism.  Thompson shows the development of time and how it changed through the centuries.  I found this article very interesting because it shows the different ways people tracked time.  In the early centuries, time was never recorded with a specific number, instead it was recorded by a specific phrase depending on the culture that was present.  People arrived on time through estimated times.

Thompson goes further in explaining how there are different types of time.  One of the types discussed was task-oriented time.  This is how the recording of time started.  But it is interesting because task-oriented time in some cultures is still present.  Task-oriented time actually is present in some ways in the our culture now.  Task-oriented time is shown with parenting.  Stay-at-home parents deal with this time because they run on the time of their children as well as their own time.  Their children go to school, have appointments, and do extracurricular activities.  The children must depend on the time of their parents, therefore their parents must be on the time of their children.

Evolution of the concepts of time and surveillance

In Information Is the Alpha and Omega of Our Work, Peter Holquist details the evolution and purpose of the Soviet surveillance systems. Holquist argues the Soviet surveillance systems were not solely a Soviet phenomenon and were not restricted to the Bolshevik era of power. Instead Holquist claims the use of surveillance was a European concept and had existed prior to the Bolsheviks, with World War One as a catalyst. Surveillance differed from policing in that it’s goal was to mold, “society’s human material into a more emancipated, conscious, and superior individual”(Holquist, 417). Through surveillance the states could, “attempt to gather information on popular moods and the measures intended to transform them”(Holquist, 418). Holquist argues surveillance was directly related to the transition from an imperial state concerned more with ruling territory, to a governmental state which became more concerned with the overall mood and thoughts of the population it ruled over. This is not to say the governmental state cared about the feelings and problems of it’s people on human level, but as Holquist mentions the state was interested due to a desire to protect it’s own lifespan.

Holquist argues surveillance varied within Russia in different time periods and contrasts Imperial Russia in 1913 with Soviet Russia in 1920. Imperial Russia did have surveillance agencies, such as the “Black Offices”, but the state was at that time more concerned with potential revolutionaries at the time than the Russian population as a whole. Yet after the fall of the Tsar and rise of the Soviet regime, the focus of surveillance switched to include revolutionaries and the population as a whole. This was due to the increased focus on creating a “better, purer society”(Holquist, 417) as well as a desire to protect the regime. It was interesting to see throughout the article how Holquist describes the evolution of surveillance and the variance within time periods, countries, and the European continent as a whole.

In Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism Thompson analyzes the evolution of the concept of time in relation to industry, modernization, and societal values. Thompson argues one of the ways the importance of time was emphasized was through pre-existing Puritan values. These values had already stressed a strong work ethic and a importance placed on time in the context of religion and an approaching judgment day. Thompson argues the insistence imposed by religion on the working individual switched to an insistence based on making money and a sense of time in relation to hours in place of a natural cycle. Relating to the evolution of the modern concept of time in relation to society, Thompson mentioned clocks began appearing in public places during the 14th century but their upkeep and ringing was funded through the donations of local residents. The donations indicate that the modern concept and importance of time was not yet established in these communities and most were functioning with natural time. It was interesting that in the 18th century the possession of a device which could tell time, such as a pocketwatch or grandfather clock, indicated a higher social status or rising social status amongst the lower classes.

Reflections on Holquist and Thompson

Until the pendulum was introduced in 1658, time was imprecise, a concept foreign to the 21st century. It varied from town to town and from clock to clock. This drew my attention because in 2013, there is a single correct time, which all watches and clocks aspire to. Even after the invention of the pendulum, the concept of time was almost independent from clock to clock.

The device of a clock has progressively evolved from a simple machine to a status symbol and even a portable investment. Thomas states that the “transition to mature industrial society” (Thompson, 79) from an ignorant non-industrial culture revolves around the use of time, which changes with each generation and each person. From the increased efforts of time conservation and time utilization emerged productivity and efficiency, the cornerstones of capitalism.

Holquist starts his article by declaring his bias towards American society over Soviet society. He discusses how Bolshevik surveillance “shape[d] how people thought they could express themselves—while at the same suggesting to them that their views mattered” (Holquist, 430). If anything, Holquist depicts the spying methods of the Bolsheviks and Soviets positively by defining their purpose as “enlightening the population” (435). American culture, traditionally, would reject this view because this type of surveillance would be seen as an invasion of privacy and a desecration of personal freedoms. Holquist depicts himself as biased against Soviet culture but defends their spying in a way similar to the Soviets themselves.

Saturday at the Cumberland County Historical Society

Yesterday I visited the Cumberland County Historical Society on Pitt Street, across from Alibi’s. I wanted to take a look at their materials and get a general feel of the place. It’s a really neat center; the staff are amiable and accommodating and the library is clean, spacious, and full of light.

I went in with only a very vague idea of what I was looking for – sources that might tell me something about the history of the African American population in early twentieth century Carlisle. One of the library personnel pointed in a few directions.

First, I did some basic keyword searches in the library catalogue, which incorporates all of the center’s materials, including those from the archive. Although the catalog is not available online, it’s fairly user friendly. Each item has a paragraph-long description that can give you a good idea of its content and save you time. I learned the names of people and places that might be important to my project just in this preliminary search. Another great feature of the catalogue is that all photographs searchable and visible through the searches.

From there I delved into the one-box “African American Collection.” The contents dealt mostly with slavery and the Underground Railroad, and touched on the civil rights movement. There were a couple folders on African American churches and schools in Carlisle. While the contents in itself didn’t get me much closer to what I was looking for, I noticed that many of the materials had been catalogued by our very own Malinda Triller, so I’ve made mental note to talk to her about what she remembers of the materials.

I was a bit discouraged by the results of my first search. As Professor Qualls wrote in his most recent email, though, I might be going about it “the hard way.” Especially when it comes to an obscure aspect of the local history of a small town like Carlisle, trying to find enough sources to answer a set of questions (much less form a thesis) is a difficult task. We are necessarily limited by the number and content of primary sources available. There is no doubt that I’ll be reorienting or completely changing my initial topic.

Entrance to the Cumberland County Historical Society.

For those who are interested, the CCHS Library hours are:

Monday                                   4:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Tuesday through Friday          10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Saturday                                  10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

On a separate note, for those of you who are interested in Carlisle history, here’s the website of a 2007 American Studies fieldwork class: Carlisle History: A living history of Carlisle, PA.

I also came across this book in an internet search. Looks like a fun read!: Wicked Carlisle by Joseph David Cress.

Literary Styles in Week 4

Darnton does a wonderful job of getting into the mindset of these apprentices and attempting to create reasoning for their actions. By building and explaining the mindset of the worker in eighteenth-century France, Darnton is able to relate their actions to actions that the reader currently partakes in such as Marti Gras and the craziness that currently occurs. By adding an explanation as to the cruelty towards animals, Darnton is not able to justify the actions rather, he is able to explain their reasoning. One thing I did not feel Darnton did well was his use of organization within the chapter. As a reader, I did not see where he was going and it felt like he jumped around a little bit, albeit with transitions. With his choice of the introduction, it felt as if the chapter was going to be on cats and their “role” in eighteenth-century France.

In the second piece, Schivelbusch builds a solid argument by organizing his thoughts in the first two paragraphs and then seems to follow that organization, first by explaining the importance of light and then his main argument about the railroad revolutionizing. He uses a historgraphical perspective, using at the time observations and anecdotes to build his argument which really seems to work. He also writes similar to Tuckman using imagery in his choice of primary sources and his writing. I also found it intriguing that rather than just focus on the railroad and what it did for Europe, he focused on the improvements that the railroads made and the difference class made for travelers. All in all, I felt as if Schivelbusch created an easier to read paper with which one could relate, a must in the field of writing history.

Structure and writing

I read the intro to Davis’ article, “Religious Riot in Sixteenth Century France” to explore how  she went about setting up and introducing her research. She began by quoting two religious figures in the 1560s to provide an example for her analysis to follow. It’s important that she uses primary sources right away, and this is only one style of beginning an analytical research article. In her introduction she lays out the focus of her paper, religious riots in 16th century France, their significance and who participated in them. She provides a comparison to other rioters at the time, such as food riots. In differentiating religious riots, she gives a preliminary definition of the issue and explores the characteristics of mob violence further. She creates her own “niche” by saying that although much research has paid attention to “….” and a lot of study has been done on these sorts of riots and mob violence, religious riots havent received much “analytical attention”. So she introduces and contextualizes the issue she will explore later on in the paper. Still within the introduction she explores the problem of religious rioting, what other scholars have missed, and she asks a number of questions and then in the next paragraph explains the structure of her paper and her methods in going about answering these questions. She uses short quotes often, but integrates them well into her narrative and uses long explicatory footnotes.

 

 

Compartments and Riots

In Wolfgang Schivelbusch’s writing, he discusses the transformation in transportation.  To go form one place to another, in the past people would drive cars, giving the ability to take in the nature that surrounded them.  Once the railroads were established, the people argued they were losing the ability to be one with nature because everything was moving so quickly past them.  Flowers became a blur and one could only see streaks of color.  Along with this complaint, the people mentioned the establishment of reading liesure books on trains instead of socializing with the ones around them.  It is interesting for me to try and understand this point because nowadays, on trains and planes everyone keeps to themselves whether they read a book, do work, or simply sleep and enjoy music.

Schivelbusch also mentions the compartments, dealing with the issue of class.  Because railroad cars we are identical, the upper class had an issue knowing they were getting the same treatment as the lower classes.  The upper class wanted to dominate and showoff their wealth.

Natalie Davis’ piece on religious riots in 16th century France also discusses the differences from the past to the present.  Religious riots were very common during that time period due to the Reformation that was occurring.  The way Davis argued her points were different than Schivelbusch in a sense that Davis told the reader specifically what she was going to argue and how.  The amount of examples she used to support her facts was a little overwhelming because it almost felt as if she was trying too hard.  In all, her conclusion is what made the most sense to me.  She went back to her introduction and summed up her paper in only a few sentences.

Workin’ on (researching) the railroad…among other things

Wolfgang Schivelbusch gives a very detailed, well-researched account of how the railroads changed how people viewed their lives. Despite his dearth of primary sources, however, Schivelbusch neglects the lower-class people whose views were no doubt also impacted by what the Americans called the “iron horse.” This is somewhat understandable, as the lower class in pretty much all of society is traditionally less lettered, literate, or likely to record their thoughts and feelings than the upper class, but their thoughts on the matter are still quite important. Perhaps more than the rich, the working class was influenced by the railroad as an easy method of quick conveyance around the Continent, and accordingly had more of a worldview shift courtesy of the railroad. Schivelbusch presents an excellent picture of how the railroad changed society, but it could stand to be a bit more complete.

With regard to Marius’ writings, I must confess I had the exact opposite problem with my research. Colonel John D. Hartigan no doubt had a very interesting career in the service, first as a training unit commander at Dickinson, then in the military governorship of Austria. Tantalizing glimpses are given of this, such as a friendly letter from the commander of all French forces in Germany, or his Memorial Day speech to the college, but by and large his papers are a somewhat single-minded affair, focusing on his drive to create a study abroad program at the college. His pictures are somewhat more interesting, but again provide little insight into the man. I suppose this motivated me to be quick and efficient with my research, but it was somewhat disappointing in that I’d expected to find a much different set of documents to peruse, rather than a single-minded collection focused solely on one aspect of the man.

Always a researcher, never a writer

First Tuchman, now Marius. This is the second time I’ve read an academic horror story in which someone becomes so wrapped up in research that s/he never gets around to writing. Tuchman recalls “a lady professor” in her seventies who had been doing research all her life. Marius, too, writes of Frederick Jackson Turner, who was only able to write one of the many books he had promised to publishers (A Short Guide to Writing About History, 88-89). These individuals – both the lady professor and Turner – knew so much, but were they ever able to share even a fraction of their knowledge with the world? Tuchman is right when she says “Research is endlessly seductive; writing is hard work” (Practicing History,21).

The black hole of death. Stop researching or you might end up on an episode of Hoarders. From http://www.oddballdaily.com/.

The black hole of death. Stop researching or you might end up on an episode of Hoarders. From http://www.oddballdaily.com/.

I was somewhat afraid of following in their footsteps and becoming a perpetual researcher while doing our archive assignment. As I explored the collection of General James Gordon Steese – Dickinson College Class of 1902, Army engineer, WWI witness, Panama Canal builder, Alaska Road Commissioner, Prospector of South American oil, and all around adventurer and world traveler – I was amazed at what I found. The artifacts included a flirty goodbye letter from 1910 made with magazine scraps; an elaborate certificate signed by Presidents Roosevelt and Taft; and photographs of men wrangling alligators and sea lions, among other items. Still, with twelve plus boxes of documents pertaining to some of the most important events of the first half of the twentieth century in front of me, it wasn’t too hard to see how the situation could turn from an interesting class assignment into a black hole of death. Once I’d rummaged around a bit and picked four fairly interesting pieces (but oh, there were so many!), I got out of there, knowing that my incredible ability to get distracted would get me nowhere.

I also found that recording not just my findings, but also my thoughts and questions as I went was really helpful both to guide my research and simplify the end task. I’ve realized that it’s important to be conscientious of your thought and not let yourself slip into that sort of absentmindedness that comes with casual reading. Thoughts are fleeting, tie them down to a piece of paper so that they don’t disappear into your nether regions of your brain again! Writing as I went made putting the whole piece together at the end that much easier. Writing is a process. This is something that we’re constantly told but, at least for me, is a lesson I’ve had to learn the hard way and am only now beginning to understand and apply. So here’s to knowing when to stop researching and start writing, to the writing process, and to our ability to change, learn, and grow from it!

Approaches to the past with Schivelbusch and Davis

Schivelbusch gathers a handful of first hand accounts on the innovation of railway travel, some positive and some negative. He looks at the social effects and reactions of this world-changing form of transportation. Some viewed railroads as a “guarantor of democracy, harmony between nations, peace, and progress” and others viewed it as bad for health. By examining the perspectives of people and countries at the time of the train’s incorporation into society, Schivelbusch is able to hash out a depiction of railway travel which is unique to the nineteenth-century.

Davis argues that riots, contrary to their inherent chaos, were sometimes believed in the sixteenth-century to have a “kind of system or sense.” She compares views on riots in modern times with those of centuries ago, using a myriad of other writers as her evidence. By looking at the goals, causes, and “occasions” of France’s religious riots, Davis is able to categorize and define them. For example, she makes the conclusion that most religious riots occur “during the time of religious worship or ritual in the space which one or both groups were using for sacred purposes.” Davis manages to take one of the most chaotic recurring events in human nature, a riot, and categorize it through analysis and evidence.